Kyiv: Russian army shelled penal colony with Ukrainian POWs in Donetsk region
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of Ukraine commented to the shelling of the Volnovakha correctional colony No. 120 in the village of Olenivka, Donetsk region.
"The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a targeted deliberate artillery shelling of a penal institution in the village of Olenivka, Donetsk region, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held," the Ukrainian General Staff said.
"The Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals - to accuse Ukraine of committing "war crimes", as well as to hide torture of prisoners and executions" committed there on the orders of the occupation administration and the command of the Russian Armed Forces in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region,” the statement continues.
The consequences of the shelling are being determined. According to the commander of the Ukrainian Missile and Artillery Forces, the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not carry out missile or artillery strikes near Olenivka.
Ukrainian military noted that thanks to the high-precision weapons received from Ukrainian partners, Ukrainian Forces carry out only high-precision strikes.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces follow the principles and the norms of international humanitarian law, have never conducted and do not conduct shelling on civilian infrastructure, especially in places where Ukrainian prisoners of war are likely to be held,” the statement reads.
The Ukrainian General Staff called the statements about the alleged shelling of civilian infrastructure by the Ukrainian Armed Forces "an outright lie and provocation, the responsibility for which lies fully with Russia - an aggressor country, an occupier and a sponsor of terrorism."
“According to preliminary data, as a result of the shelling of the penal colony in Olenivka, 53 people were killed, another 75 were injured, " said representatives of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. Deputy Minister of Information of the Republic Daniil Bezsonov spoke about 40 killed prisoners and 130 injured. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 40 people were killed, 75 were injured.
Bezsonov blamed the shelling on the Ukrainian side. "At night they hit, presumably using HIMARS, the prison in Olenivka . There was a direct hit on the barrack with prisoners," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, sources of the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that artillery strikes of the Russian Armed Forces in the direction of Olenivka were observed earlier. Another source said that the other day the Ukrainian prisoners were transferred to these barracks.
Adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidtial Administration Mykhailo Podolyak in turn wrote on Telegram that there are no operational military targets for the Ukrainian Army in Olenivka.
"Russia makes these hysterical statements that the strike was carried out on the captured Ukrainian defenders to create a public outcry in Ukraine and turn the public opinion in different countries against our Armed Forces," he said.
On June 8, more than a thousand Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were taken to Russia. In May, Russian forces captured Ukrainian servicemen who had been on the defensive at a factory in Mariupol for more than two months.